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1 Written By 




ISAAC MARSHALL PAGE 1 

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"The Kcntuckian, or A 
Woman's Reaping" 

is one of those books that make an im- 
pression upon the young mind not to be 
forgotten. It may truly be called — The 
Home Book. It is written to show what 
each home can be if only w^e do our part 
in contributing to its happiness. The 
story of the book, which is laid in the 
Kentucky hills, delights all the young 
people as they delve into its beautiful 
depths. 

If you want your home life purer, and 
to leave your children a gift that is 
worth while, be sure to get them this 
book. 

Beautifully bound in cloth. 75c. post- 
paid. 



Address All Orders to the Author, 

I. M. PAGE, 

P. O. Box 394, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



44 



A Little History of 
The Great World War" 



Vrfttcn By 

Isaac SVlarshall Tage 

Author of ''The Girt that "Disappeared"' and 

"TAe Keniuckian, or <A Woman's 

"^Reaping'' 



Published By 

L M. PAGE 
R O. Box 394, Gncinnati, Ohio. 






Copyright, J9J8 



FEB 25 1918 ©CU492381 



PREFACE 



Our excuse for sending out this little vol- 
ume to the public is that there is no other 
book like it ; i. e., a brief history that gives the 
real story of the great world war in a nut- 
shell. Those books that are on the markets 
are either too costly for the rank and file to 
buy or they require so much reading to get at 
the facts that you find told so briefly here. It 
is therefore with the feeling that we are ren- 
dering America the service of supplying a 
real need, we send this little book on its life 
mission. 

We also hope that it will do more than 
merely answer the questions dealt with, but 
that it will Americanize our thought of the 
World's War and stir each reader with that 
patriotic feeling born of knowing the truth; 
that we may go with glad hearts to do our bit, 
whatever that bit may be, our hearts swell- 
ing with pride that we have heard America's 
call, and our feet hasting to the task that the 
present emergency has brought. We there- 



4 A LITTLE HISTORY 

fore dedicate this little booklet to the Mothers 
who have given so unselfishly to their coun- 
try, and to the sons v^rho have donned the 
khaki in the name of LIBERTY. 

Yours sincerely, 

ISAAC MARSHALL PAGE. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Beginning of the European War 

On June 28, 1914, the Austrian Crown 
Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife were 
murdered at Sarejevo in Austria-Hungary 
Sarejevo is so near to the borders of Servia 
that suspicion was at once attached to the 
Servian Nation. Austria-Hungary made im- 
mediate investigation which revealed that the 
murder had been planned in Servia and that 
the assassins had been assisted by high of- 
ficials in the government. 

Many weeks passed before any action was 
taken. The Nations wondered what Austria 
would say. When she did speak it was like 
a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky. Sir Ed- 
ward Grey, remarked that he had never 
known any state to address another with 
such authority. 

On July 23rd, Servia received the Austrian 
note. This note demanded the dismissal and 
punishment of the men connected with the 
murder; the supression of certain newspapers 
and further that Austrian officers should aid 
in enforcing the above mentioned demands. 

Any one can see that for Servia to accept 



6 A LITTLE HISTORY 

these demands would be to surrender her- 
self to Austria as a mere province. Servia 
wired Russia for advice. In this telegram 
she told Russia that she was willing to ac- 
cept these demands as far as consistent with 
her integrity, but felt that to accept them 
in toto would not be consistent with her in- 
tegrity. 

The Tsar of Russia urged the crown prince 
to go as far in meeting the Austrian demands 
as Servia's national integrity would allow and 
then in case this failed, Russia would not be 
unmindful of her fate. 

July 24th — The day Russia sent the above 
message she decided on a partial mobilization 
of her troops. She believed that trouble was 
coming and she must prepare for it in time. 
Russia asked England's aid in case war came. 
France being bound to Russia by treaty as 
an ally, hinted at the same. Germany knew 
that the war was coming and she asked Eng- 
land to remain neutral. England feared war, 
but her hope was for peace and so she did 
not commit herself to either France, Russia 
or Germany. 

Russia thought that Austria-Hungary was 
striking at her through her ally, Servia. The 
quarrel thus became a quarrel between 
Russia and Austria-Hungary. When England 
saw the acuteness of the situation she at once 
suggested, the four power mediation. That 



GREAT WORLD WAR 7 

was, to let England, Germany, France and 
Italy settle the matter, and thus keep the 
peace of Europe. On the 25th of July Ger- 
many agreed to the mediation of the four 
powers ; but the next day she refused the 
mediation of the four powers. 

On the 28th Austria makes her refusal to 
mediation, and also breaks off discussion with 
Russia. 

Servia accepts the demands of Austria, but 
Austria claimed that the acceptance had come 
too late, declared war on the little nation and 
proceeded into her territory with armed 
forces. 

On July 29th Austria listens to reason and 
resumes discussion with Russia, which con- 
tinue through the 30th and 31st. On the first 
day of August Austria and Russia come to 
an agreement, as Austria gave in on the only 
outstanding point. The peace of Europe was 
sure. 

' Now that very day Germany mobilized her 
troops for action and late that night broke 
the peace of Europe by declaring war on 
Russia. 

Why? Do you ask why? That no one 
knows. Some say it was because the Kaiser 
is ambitious and wants to be the ruler of the 
world. Others say the Kaiser's friends who 
own the powder mills and steel and iron 
works, in which the Kaiser is a holder of im-: 



8 A LITTLE HISTORY 

mense stock, launched the war for the sake 
of financial gain. Be that as it may, what- 
ever the purpose, and whoever is responsible 
for it, the fact is the same; Germany started 
the war. 

If Germany did not want war why did she 
refuse the only way to peace, when Austria 
was ready to accept it? Why did Germany 
advise Austria to occupy Belgrade or some 
other point in Servia? (See British White 
Paper.) 

If she had stopped at merely wanting war, 
it would have been different, but Germany 
was doing her underhanded work, by dictat- 
ing to Austria what she should demand of 
Servia. On July 5, 1914, a few days after the 
Sarejevo murder, a secret meeting was held 
between high officials of the Austrian and 
German governments. This was made public 
in a speech of Deputy Haase before the Reich- 
stag, on July 19th. The Italian Ambassador 
to Turkey told an American Attache there 
that he had been talking to the German Am- 
bassador Baron Wangenheim, who had told 
him that he was just from a conference in 
Berlin and that Austria was going to make 
the demands on Servia so strong that she 
could not accept them. 

If Germany is not guilty of starting the 
most horrible war of all time, why does she 
not make public the state documents pass- 



GREAT WORLD WAR 9 

ing between her and Austria, at the period 
just preceeding her entrance of Belgium? 

A United States Minister to one of the 
European countries at the time tells of a 
visit to the German borders in June, 1914, 
even previous to the Sarejevo murder, and 
to his surprise there were great numbers of 
German soldiers. He saw practically no sol- 
diers on the French borders. Germany's prep- 
arations were in progress even then. 

No one but the Imperial German Govern- 
ment is the responsible party for the horrible 
world war. She concocted the war scheme 
and started it in operation. God grant that 
she will reach the point that will make a 
peace treaty with her conquerors that she 
will be forced to keep forever ! 



CHAPTER 11. 

The Invasion of Belgium 

For many years German commerce had fill- 
ed the world. Her factories were sending 
out millions and millions of articles bearing 
the expression Made in Germany, but Ger- 
many did not have seaports like other na- 
tions. Her commerce must go out by way 
of the North Sea and hundreds of miles to 
the north in order to pass around Scotland, 



10 A LITTLE HISTORY 

or her ships must sail to the south through 
the Straits of Dover, and south of England. 
Now, if she could only reduce France to a 
German province she could connect her sea- 
ports to her commerce by means of railroads. 
Thus on the 4th day of August, 1914, the 
German armies started to France. Why did 
they not march on to Russia? A portion of 
her armies did go to her eastern front, but 
her main army started for France, because 
that way led to world dominion. It was the 
road to the fulfilment of her concocted 
scheme. Her Kaisers had dreamed of it for 
a century, and for fifty years her munition 
plants had been storing the essence of death 
against the day. Her coflfers overflowed 
with gold. Food supplies were ample. Her 
instruments of waj would be a surprise to 
the world. The Army? Nothing like it. 
Germany was prepared, and the moment had 
come. Peace treaties, neutral nations, na- 
tional honor, or the endless suflfering to be 
brought on by her unthinkable brutality 
amounted to nothing. Germany must win. 

This was the soul of the Kaiser-god of 
Germany. It has ever been the soul of Prus- 
sianism and will be till the allies — truest 
friends of the German people — have delivered 
to the freeborn sons of the Fatherland a re- 
public washed in the blood, and tears of the 
suffering poor. Until the haughty house of 



GREAT WORLD WAR 11 

the Hohenzollerns has tasted the blade of the 
conqueror. 

The border of France that touches Ger- 
many is very narrow, so that the Germans 
found it to their interest to cross Belgium 
rather than confine their fighting to that nar- 
row border on Alsace-Loraine. Belgium an- 
ticipated this so that she asked both France 
and Germany to respect her neutrality. 
France notified her at once that she would 
respect her neutrality, and she did. 

What Did Germany Do? 

In the year 1839 a treaty was made by the 
leading nations of Europe which guaranteed 
the neutrality of Belgium. In 1911 the Bel- 
gian Minister in Berlin asked anew the prom- 
ise of Germany to keep this treaty and the 
assurance was given. In 1913 a high Ger- 
man official said that Germany was deter- 
mined to respect Belgium's guarantee of neu- 
trality. Herr Von Bulow, the German Min- 
ister in Brussels, again promised as late as 
July 31, 1914, that the German sentiment re- 
specting the neutrality of Belgium was the 
same. Yet in the face of all these promises 
on August 2, 1914, Germany sent Belgium an 
ultimatum telling her to let her soldiers come 
across her territory, or else she would be 
treated as an enemy. This ultimatum was 



12 A LITTLE HISTORY 

sent at 7 P. M. and Belgium was only given 
till 7 A. M. the next day to answer; then on 
that afternoon (August 3rd) the German 
army crossed over into Belgium. On August 
4th she started her black campaign of brutal- 
ity that would shame the dark ages. Inno- 
cent civilians were shot down like dogs. Some 
were shot in the back while running and un- 
armed. 

Frightful? So frightful that the whole 
world was shocked. America had reason 
enough right there to declare war on the 
German autocracy, but she waited. We felt 
that it was not our affair, so America wait- 
ed. England, however, was closer, Belgium 
was England's honest little neighbor, and the 
Mad Dog of Europe — the unnameable Kaiser- 
god — was turned loose. The freedom of all 
Europe was at stake. Germany would have 
been the dictator of the world had not Eng- 
land — the England we are prone to abuse — 
stepped in at the moment she did. 

The German policy is one of Frightfulness. 
She lays bare every resource, of the enemy. 
She terrorizes the enemy subjects in order 
to carry out her own aims. Back in the 
seventies a German writer argued that in 
order to gain superiority over the enemy, the 
army must use ruthless force. Later another 
German military writer: "The enemy must 
not be spared the wretchedness of war. 



GREAT WORLD WAR 13 

Wretchedness shatters not only the energy, 
but the will of the enemy." Then in July, 
1900, the Kaiser in addressing the troops on 
their leave for the Boxer War in China, urg- 
ed them to show no mercy to the Chinese. 
To take no prisoners. They must make a 
name for themselves that a Chinese would 
never look a German askance in the face. 
In this war on the Chinese, the common sol- 
diers were given form books for terrorizing 
the Chinese. This then is the war policy in 
which Germany delights. If you think that 
she forgot to use this policy when she en- 
tered Belgium, look at the record. 

In less than forty-eight hours after the 
German troops entered Belgian territory, a 
bunch of her soldiers entered a house, shot 
the father and mother dead, and taking their 
innocent daughter, outraged her until she 
died. 

Villages everywhere were burned. Herve, 
Soumagne, Micheroux, were burned and the 
civilians shot down without excuse. The 
Germans placed two regiments around the 
village of Saint Maurice, set fire to the houses, 
and as the helpless Belgians tried to escape 
they shot them down without mercy, or dis- 
tinction. The Belgians had no way to defend 
themselves as their fire-arms had been taken 
up by the Burgomaster. 

At Andenne nearly three hundred men were 



14 A LITTLE HISTORY 

massacred by drunken German soldiers. One 
man was placed at the mouth of a machine 
gun and shot. His wife carried his body- 
home on a wheel barrow. This made the 
Germ.ans m^ad, so that they broke into the 
house, piled all the edibles in the floor, and 
each one committed a nuisance there. 

On the 21st of August, after a wholesale 
massacre at Liege, the Germans carried fif- 
teen or twenty women into the public square 
and assaulted them in broad daylight. 

In the district of Malines, the Germans 
called a peasant to the door. He did not 
open quick enough for them, and they shot 
him down in his own door. His wife, who 
stood by him with a sucking baby in her 
arms, leaped on to the Germans and scratch- 
ed their faces. A soldier knocked her down 
and kiiled her. They bayonetted the baby 
too, and laughed as its little hands quivered 
in death. Then turning to other Belgians, 
said : ''When a Germ.an tells you to do any- 
thing 3^ou had better hurry." 

This wholesale murder was not confined 
to any one class, but they shot down old men 
in their gardens. The soldiers ordered one 
woman to bring wine and when she brought 
it they shot her through the temple, v/ith no 
excuse whatever. 
In the village of Werchter a wdiole family 



GREAT WORLD WAR 15 

was massacred because the youngest daugh- 
ter would not allow the German soldiers to 
outrage her. 

We, of course, sent relief ships for the 
Belgian sufferers, but still we remained neu- 
tral, and Kaiser Wilhelm, the Mad Dog of 
Europe, went on with his policy of Frightful- 
ness. 



CHAPTER III. 
Spread of the German Menace 

Volumes have been written in keeping with 
the chapter you have just read. They tell 
how the Belgians were locked in the village 
church with no food, and a scanty supply of 
water; hov/ that the priests were taken out 
and shot beside their own churches, and of 
the beautiful pieces of architecture and art 
destroyed by the modern barbarians ; and of 
Belgian children crying for bread, even dying 
of starvation while the soldiers of the Im- 
perial German Government feasted on the 
cattle and produce of the land; but v/e shall 
draw the curtain here that the scene of poor, 
helpless, suffering Belgium may be shut out 
of the readers' vision for a while. 

We have given you but a glimpse of the 
German menace in 1914, and now we shall 



16 A LITTLE HISTORY 

look at her in 1915, to see if she has forgot- 
ten her policy of frightfulness. 

May the 1st, 1915, the passenger steamer 
Lusitania set sail from New York with over 
two thousand passengers aboard. The day 
before she sailed Germany notified the Amer- 
ican public of the danger of sailing on pas- 
senger vessels on the high seas, but no one 
thought of Germany doing so dastardly ^ 
thing as torpedoing a passenger ship. May 
the 7th, as the ship neared Queenstown, the 
captain sighted the periscope of a submarine. 
A moment later he saw a torpedo speeding 
to the ship. He ordered the ship to make 
for the coast, but as she turned another tor- 
pedo struck her in the side, disabling her 
boilers. It was then impossible to do any- 
thing but lower the life boats. The Lusi- 
tania was only twenty minutes sinking, and 
her deck was the scene of beautiful heroism. 
Brave men handed their life belts to women, 
and helped them into the boats, giving their 
own lives, but in spite of all the care and 
coolness nearly 1,150 lives were lost. 114 
of these were Americans, and a great many 
women and children. Is there a man in all 
civilization who can think lightly of this mur- 
der on the high seas? It is cold-blooded 
murder. Premeditated murder. If it was not 
premeditated, why did Germany send out a 
warning? She intended to use her policy of 



GREAT WORLD WAR 17 

frightfulness on the sea to frighten com- 
merce from the ocean, and if possible get by 
with her deeds of horror. She meant to 
commit the murder of the Lusitania's unfor- 
tunate passengers and when the steamer had 
about settled on her final resting place a 
U-boat rose to see how well the Kaiser's 
murder plot had been carried out. To Ger- 
many this deed brought laughter and song, 
to us it brings horror. Each wave that rolls 
against the Statue of Liberty portrays the 
shroud of some American woman and in its 
folds you can almost see the uplifted, appeal- 
ing, baby hands as they rose on May 7th for 
the last time. 

This stirred America as she had not been 
stirred. A German aeroplane had tried to 
drop bombs on the U. S. Ship Gushing. Then 
a German submarine tried to torpedo the 
Gulflight. There are those who claim it wa'S 
only a mistake of the aeronaut or the cap- 
tain of the U-boat, but when we consider how 
accurately Germany knew where to meet the 
Arabic and the Lusitania, we are convinced 
of her policy. It would, of course, in her 
judgment, be an easy matter to apologize to 
America, and thus keep her neutral for a 
while. 

May 25th, three weeks later, she made a 
U-boat attack on the U. S. Ship Nebraskan, 
and pursuant to her plan offered an apology 



18 A LITTLE HISTORY 

to the United States Government on July 
15th. 

Germany now became more considerate of 
the United States. She had to. The German 
Chancellor, Bethman-Holweg, said to the 
Reichstag: "I have lent myself to the Amer- 
ican people till we have time to build more 
submarines." This then was Germany's pur- 
pose. She intended to engage the United 
States in war when she felt that she was 
sure of victory. Her place must be the con- 
queror of the v/hole world, and she allowed 
her foolish ambition to lead her into really 
believing that she could whip the allies and 
then America. So in order to gain a little 
time she turned her policy of frightfulness 
from us to other parts of the world. 

Germany had found the Zeppelin a military 
failure. It is too heavy to face the lighter 
types of aeroplanes used by the allies. The 
lighter types, going so much faster, dart out 
of the way of the Zeppelin and often bring 
her do\vn, so Germany sent her Zeppelins on 
another mission. 

On January 20, 1915, her Zeppelins drop- 
ped nearly two dozen bombs on the English 
coast towns, only 70 miles from London. She 
had visited Antvv^erp and Paris at an earlier 
date in the war than this, and as it was not 
so dangerous as in the war zone, she con- 
tinued her policy of frightfulness on the help- 



GREAT WORLD WAR 19 

less women and children. On April 14th, she 
dropped bombs on Blyth and Wallsend. The 
next day she visited the towns of Sitting- 
bourne, Faversham, and Canterbury. April 
30th, Ipswich; May 16th, Ramsgate ; May 
27th, Southgate; and on the 25th her vul- 
tures of death visited the suburbs of London 
killing twenty-five. And again on the 31st, 
when, according to the German account, the 
navy yard and arsenal at South Shields were 
destroyed. London reports simply give the 
number of the killed and the wounded. This 
was the German policy of Frightfulness, but 
on the 15th day of June when aeroplanes of the 
allies visited the town of Karlsruhe in re- 
taliation, the Mad Dog of Europe sent up 
an awful howl. The Kaiser thought it per- 
fectly right that his Zeppelins should murder 
women and children in the night v/hen they 
were asleep, but when the just court of the 
allies asked "Eye for eye," in order to teach 
the enemy the extent of his crimes and thus 
protect the women and children of France, 
England and Belgium, the Kaiser asked for 
the sympathy from the whole v/orld. Instead 
of sympathy, however, he found them laugh- 
ing at him. It vv^as like an outlaw killing a 
dozen men and when the thirteenth knocked 
out his eye, to ask the bystanders to sym- 
pathize with him. 

Germany, however, did not limit her cruel- 



20 A LITTLE HISTORY 

ty, even to the women and children who were 
in good health, but attacked the hospital 
ships. Among those sunk are the Donegal, 
Lanfranc, Asturias, Gloucester Castle and 
Britannic. Some of these ships carried 
wounded soldiers, and in at least one case 
German soldiers were being cared for, but 
the heartless German beast has no heart to 
feel even for his own people. What does 
Kaiser Wilhelm care as long as his throne is 
sure ? 

The Germans also sank several ships bear- 
ing relief to the Belgian sufferers. Among 
those sunk are : Trevier, Feistein, S. S. Ca- 
milla and Storstadt. 

Another thing that shows the heartlessness 
of the German military scheme is the way 
they have dealt with the wounded men as 
found on the field. One soldier tells of being 
left in a trench with other wounded men. He 
says that when they heard a band of Ger- 
man soldiers coming one of their number, 
an officer, waved a handkerchief as a truce. 
This of course meant surrender as prisoners 
of war, for they were all helpless. The Ger- 
mans sprang into the trench and bayonetted 
the men, except the one who tells the story. 
They thought he was dead. 

April 22, 1915, Germany added a new chap- 
ter to her history of cruelty. The British 
were fighting nobly in open battle at Ypres 



GREAT WORLD WAR 21 

when great yellow clouds came rolling from 
the German Imes. What could it be? A 
moment later the British were gasping and 
dying from its fumes. It was the first charge 
with poison gas. 

Who would have stooped to such a method 
but satan, or one in close league with him? 

Europe's Mad Dog was still unchained. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Land of Heroes 

When the Germans started their march of 
death on the French and Belgians, France 
was surprised beyond measure. She knew 
nothing of the Kaiser's dream of world do- 
minion. France had given her pledge to 
Russia as an ally in case of war, but on the 
3rd day of August, 1914, when the German 
Imperial Government declared war on France 
and started her armies into her territory to 
enslave her people, France suddenly awoke 
to the fact that she was something more than 
an ally. She was therefore unprepared to 
face at a moment's notice the enemy that 
had been planning and preparing for fifty 
years for her utter ruin. 

Shock though it was, France marshaled 
her small force against the enemy. England 



22 A LITTLE HISTORY 

responded for the sake of wronged Belgium. 
England severed relations with Germany on 
August 5, 1914, and on August 6th, Parlia- 
ment accepted the state of war the Germans 
had brought on. 

It was the 23rd of August when the allies 
met the Germans in battle. The battle oc- 
curred at Mons, Belgium, but the lack of 
preparations brought defeat to the allies. 
Every day the Germans gained from ten to 
fifteen miles on the allies. On and on march- 
ed the conquering hordes of the Germans, 
until they crossed the river Marne on the 
4th day of September. They were now in 
a short distance of Paris, so close that an 
attack on Paris was expected at any day. The 
city was preparing for such an attack and 
the French Government was moved to Bor- 
deaux. It seemed as though Germany was 
in to win in her dream of world dominion, 
but there came a new chapter in French his- 
tory. The spirit of the immortal Joan of Arc 
entered the armies. The heroic General Jof- 
fre rallied his men and made a drive* on the 
Germans that will make him famous for all 
time. No power on earth could stay the 
heroic sons of France. The English knew this 
and went into the task v/ith renewed energy. 
The French knew it and showed it in those 
courageous moments of battle. The Germans 
knew and fled like chaff before the wind. No 



GREAT WORLD WAR 23 

wonder the United States gave General Joffre 
such a wholehearted welcome when he came 
on a national mission early in 1917. The 
world recognizes him as the hero of the 
Marne! September 15 the Germans halted on 
the banks of the Aisne River and the longest 
battle line of history was started. The Germans 
tried to get around the allies and the allies 
kept running their lines farther and farther 
until October the first, a mighty line was 
formed. Along this liae of battle for three 
years have been used all the latest methods 
of warfare making Verdun, Arras, Somme 
and other sections famous as the Land of 
Heroes. 

Surely no battle since the seige of ancient 
Troy has been so fierce as that never ending 
battle of Verdun. Verdun is on the Meuse 
River and where the highway leads into the 
heart of France. The Germans thought that 
they must take Verdun. No other victory 
amounted to much unless Verdun fell. After 
months of desperate fighting in this sector, 
the Germans set in afresh with a determina- 
tion to win by forcing her way. Germany 
gathered her fresh troops and rested them 
for weeks, then at 7 A. M. on the 21st of 
February, 1915, the German forces led by 
Crown Prince Ruprecht made an artillery 
bombardment that has no equal in history. 
One writer describes the bursting bombs and 



24 A LITTLE HISTORY 

rockets as looking like a most coUossal dis- 
play of fireworks. The bombarding that the 
Germans had done heretofore was tame in 
comparison to this new attack. The British 
and French were cut down and their defenses 
shattered; still they fought with a desperate 
mien and courage that will never be sur- 
passed on any battlefield. The Germans knew 
that they had impaired the lines of the allies, 
and at 5 P. M, they made a drive with their 
infantry to take possession of the enemy 
trenches. They thought that nothing remain- 
ed but to possess, but they forgot the men 
they were fighting. Poor as the defenses of 
the allies were they made a stand and the 
Germans were cut to pieces, line after line 
falling like mown hay. The Germans now 
started another bombardment, followed by 
infantry drives, in this way they gained a 
foothold in the first line trenches by the end 
of the day. February 22nd, the bombarding 
was more terriffic. Their flame of battle 
swept the field as a mighty fire, and that 
night found the allies without shelter, but 
they went to work and soon dug themselves 
trenches. They had been fighting for hours 
and were almost exhausted, but they worked 
as desperately as they had fought. 

General Castlenau gave orders to the men 
to hold Verdun at any cost. On February 
24th General Petain took charge of the forces 



GREAT WORLD WAR 25 

in the Verdun sector, and later Verdun was 
a fortification with underground passages 
running for miles and miles, filled with beds, 
offices, foodstuff, and munitions. There was 
even a great underground passage for retreat. 
Such is the Verdun of the present. 

In this section the famous LaFayette fly- 
ing esquadrille won world-wide admiration. 
The entire corps is composed of Americans 
who ventured to the land of heroes even while 
the United States remained neutral. What 
gratitude to the memory of Marquis De 
LaFayette ! 

Happy be that American woman who has 
given a son to the cause of liberty. They 
may, or they may not return to you, mother, 
but they have gone to the Land of Heroes 
and their deeds shall go down in history for 
they are courtiers to the Cause of Freedom 
just as much as Washington and the men 
of 76. 



CHAPTER V. 

Why America Entered the War 

One of the most deadly pieces of German 
propaganda that has flooded the country is 
the statement that England got the United 
States into the war; or that the United 
States entered the war on England's account 
There are well meaning people who ask. 



26 A LITTLE HISTORY 

"Why didn't the United States protest when 
England interferred with our mails, when 
she was protesting to Germany about the 
U-boats?" If the reader has never thought 
seriously about this matter, please stop a 
moment and do so now. There is quite a lot 
of difference in the murder of women and 
children on the high seas, and the interfer- 
ing with mails and commerce, etc., but the 
United States did protest and England came 
to time. She also protested to Germany and 
she did not come to time. So reader, Eng- 
land has had nothing to do with our entrance 
into the world war. If England had been 
fighting as Germany's ally we could have had 
no other choice than to fight them both. Ger- 
many made war on America when she was 
neutral. She used underhanded methods, 
prostituted consular service, and trampled 
underfoot every international law that came 
in her way. 

Late in the year 1915, Von Papen, the Ger- 
man military attache at Washington, D. Cs, 
and Karl Boy-ed, German naval attache, were 
asked to leave Washington because of their 
using their offices in an underhanded way, 
thus prostituting the consular service to car- 
ry out the designs of a foreign power. Von 
Papen had sent certain messages in code to 
the war office in Berlin, which was illegal. 
Karl Boy-ed had encouraged an insurrection 



GREAT WORLD WAR 27 

in Mexico. In this connection may be men- 
tioned the names of Franz Bopp, Wolf Von 
Igel and other plotters that were in the em- 
ploy of the German regime. One planned 
to blow up the Welland Canal. Secret papers 
were found in possession of Ambassador 
Dumba revealing the plots to organize strikes 
in munition plants, and he too had to leave 
this country. It is said that one man was 
paid $5,000 for propaganda v/ork for the Im- 
perial German Government. 

Perhaps you ask if these plots resulted in 
any serious damage to any one. Yes, it was 
found that this system was employing men 
both in the United States and Mexico. It 
has been shown that Boy-ed had tried to 
bring about an insurrection in Mexico, and 
so this work finally resulted in a most dis- 
astrous thing. The Mexicans were embitter- 
ed, and finally the heartless savage. Villa, 
came to carry out the German design. We 
have no proofs that Villa was employed by 
Germany, but there is enough circumstantial 
evidence to put it beyond all doubt. We are 
therefore not far from the right track when 
we charge against the Germans that mas- 
sacre at Columbus, N. M., on the morning 
of March 9, 1916. Personally, I believe that 
the proof of this very thing will be made 
known at some future date. 

Just two weeks after the Columbus mas-: 



28 A LITTLE HISTORY 

sacre a German U-boat torpedoed and sank 
the Channel passenger steamer Sussex, caus- 
ing the loss of more American lives. 

The United States Government sent to the 
Imperial German Government on April 15, 
1916, the following note : 

"If it is still the purpose of the Imperial 
German Government to prosecute relentless 
and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of 
commerce by the use of submarines, without 
regard to what the Government of the United 
States must consider the sacred and indis- 
putable rules of international law, and the 
universally recognized dictates of humanity, 
the Government of the United States is at 
last forced to the conclusion that there is 
but one course it can pursue. Unless the 
German Government should now immediate- 
ly declare and effect an abandonment of its 
present methods of submarine warfare against 
passenger and freight carrying vessels, the 
Government of the United States can have 
no choice but to sever diplomatic relations 
with the German Empire altogether." 

Germany was not quite ready for a break 
with the United States, and so in answer to 
the above note she promised (May 4th) that 
she was ready to do all in her power to con- 
fine the operations of war for the remainder 
of its duration to the fighting forces of the 
belligerents. The German Government also 



GREAT WORLD WAR 29 

promised in this reply to meet the demands of 
international law, by visitation and search, 
both within and without the naval war zone, 
that vessels bearing passengers and freight 
should not be sunk unless they offered re- 
sistance or tried to escape. 

The next months seemed as though Ger- 
many would make good her word, but she 
had an object in view. She wanted (as shown 
before in this little volume) to gain time to 
build more submarines. January 31, 1917, 
Germany having decided that she could whip 
the whole world by using the additional sub- 
marines she had builded, sent to the United 
States a note declaring that all ships, includ- 
ing those of neutrals, would be sunk if found 
in a certain zone around France, Great Brit- 
ain, Italy and the eastern Mediterraean. 

The United States severed diplomatic re- 
lations with Germany on February 3, 1917. 
Why should she not? Germany had broken 
her solemn pledge and her note meant that 
she was going on with the murder of our 
people. 

Just at this time another piece of German 
intrigue came to light. The German foreign 
secretary, Zimmermann, had sent a note to 
Von Eckhardt, the German Minister in Mexi- 
co City, in which he told him that on February 
the first they would start the unlimited use 
of the submarine, that Germany hoped to 



30 A LITTLE HISTORY 

keep the United States neutral but in case 
we did not remain neutral for him to have 
a secret agreement with Mexico. He even 
told him to promise Mexico that Germany- 
would furnish her money, fight with her and 
when peace came Mexico would receive her 
lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Ari- 
zona. He further asked Von Eckhardt to 
have Mexico suggest to Japan that she fight 
with them. 

It has been said that this note was sent 
through the German consular service in the 
United States and was captured on the Mexi- 
can border by a band of our troops searching 
the bearer. 

This note was not made public till March 
1, 1917, but it must have been in the hands 
of our faithful representative at Washington 
at the time of the severance of diplomatic 
relations with Germany. 

The United States Government announced 
at the time of the breaking ofif of diplomatic 
relations that she would refrain from hostili- 
ties until actual "Overt Acts" of the Imperial 
German Government were committed; but 
these "overt acts" were committed. Within 
two months Germany sank at least eight 
American merchant ships, with the loss of 
nearly fifty American lives. 

The Mad Dog of Europe was laying waste 
the life and property of American citizens, 



GREAT WORLD WAR 31 

and had not our wise and faithful officials at 
Washington taken the steps they did our fate 
might have been like that of Belgium. On 
the 2nd day of April, 1917, Mr. Wilson deliv- 
ered to Congress perhaps the greatest state 
address that has been given since the Colonial 
days. It v^as a literary masterpiece, and yet 
so intensely human that it touched a respon- 
sive chord in all civilization. It was so beau- 
tiful in its unselfishness and its defense of all 
humanity, including the German people who 
are down-trodden by the Kaiser-god, that it 
brought the sympathetic aid of thousands. 
Congress was stirred into immediate action 
and with their backing, on August 6th, Presi- 
dent Wilson announced that a state of war 
exists between the United States and Ger- 
many. 

Our reason then for entering the war was 
for no ordinary purpose, but in defense of 
freedom. There is no hope of gain in national 
possessions, but there will be the greatest 
gain in the real things that are worth fight- 
ing for — the freedom from tyranny of all the 
earth's suffering creatures. 

Give, therefore, a free man's gift in this 
struggle for freedom. Buy a Liberty Bond, 
and then buy another. Join the Red Cross, 
or do your bit whatever it may be. Better 
still, go to the country's service and drive 
forever from this earth the crazed tyrant of 



Z2 A LITTLE HISTORY 

Europe, who has trampled and starved the 
crying, helpless infants of northern France 
and Belgium ; who has carried away their 
men into the lowest form of servitude, and 
their women into a slavery infinitely worse 
than death ; who has boasted to graft the 
German stock where free men have fallen; 
who has dropped bombs on relief ships, and 
hospital ships, and laughed at the sinking of 
passenger ships laden with neutral lives ; and 
who has laughed at the suffering of his own 
war-ridden Germany and urged her on to war 
against those who are fighting for her free- 
dom, by his lies which he has hired his learn- 
ed professors to invent, thus you give to the 
world that peace which the Prince of Peace 
came to bring. 



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